Lord of the memes

An oft repeated bit of trivia is that the actors were told they wouldn’t be paid if they laughed, this comment seeks to disprove that, but fails to mention it in the first place

Could be if the extras were not originally billed as speaking parts, the threat was too not upgrade them to the pay grade for speaking parts.

I know in SAG-AFTRA productions there's a limit to how many words you can speak on camera before you have to get a SAG card, that usually comes with an upgrade in pay and benefits.